Tutorial 2 Third Wave Feminism and FGM Global Problems PDF

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Third Wave Feminism and FGM UNICEF estimates that at least 200 million women and girls globally have undergone procedures commonly labelled – in the West at least – female genital mutilation. The World Health Organisation has defined female genital mutilation as ‘all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons’. It is recognised as a violation of the human rights of women and girls and, in 2012, the United Nations general assembly unanimously voted to work for the elimination of female genital mutilation throughout the world. The practice is most common in Africa as well as in parts of the Middle East and Asia. According to UNICEF, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and the Sudan account for 75% of all cases. In Djibouti and Somalia, 98% of girls born undergo genital cutting. Due to emigration, female genital mutilation is now being practiced in areas of Asia, Europe and the United States. Female genital mutilation has been illegal in the UK since 1985 and, since 2003, anyone taking a child out of the UK to be cut faces 14 years in prison. There are thought to be 137,000 girls and women living with FGM, and 144,000 girls at risk of FGM in England and Wales, according to estimates by City University but there has, to date, been only one successful prosecution – not coming until 2019 when a child’s mother was jailed for 11 years. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has expressed concern that there have been no female genital mutilation-related convictions in the UK and, in 2013, asked the government to ‘ensure the full implementation of its legislation’. Within feminist theory, female genital mutilation has caused a fissure between scholars and activists; with a large body of Anglo-American feminists vehemently opposed to the practices and a third wave challenge, largely from post-colonial feminists, who contest the approach of Western feminists as acts of quasi-imperialism. Within Western feminism, there is a strong movement to push for the eradication of African genital practices, originating largely from the work of Fran Hosken and taken up by figures such as Allison Slack. Their arguments chiefly concern the alleged health risks and sexual side eects of the practices, as well as the claim that women and girls in these communities are forced (either physically or by tradition) to undergo genital operations. As part of a more general correction to the assumption of orthodox norms latent in Western feminist theory occurring within the third wave of feminism, third wave feminist scholars critiqued Western feminist anti-female genital mutilation discourse. Scholars such as Wairimũ Ngarũiya Njambi and L. Amede Obiora have countered Western feminists for ignoring hierarchies among women and, therefore, reproducing racist and imperialist narratives as they supposedly infantilise women in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, rendering them passive and in need of intervention. There arises a heated debate as to how feminist legal scholars should deal with the topic of female genital mutilation. Essential Reading Sandra Danial (2013) ‘Cultural Relativism vs. Universalism: Female Genital Mutilation, Pragmatic Remedies’ Prandium: The Journal of Historical Studies 2(1) pp. 1-10. Wairimũ Ngarũiya Njambi (2009) ‘One Vagina to Go’ Australian Feminist Studies 24(60) pp. 167-180. Reading Task

Chandra Talpade Mohanty (1988) ‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses’ Feminist Review 30 pp. 61-88.

Discussion Points ALL FROM LECTURE***DONT USE SAME WORDS. Outline and asses the arguments against female genital mutilation that have been provided from Western academics, activists, politicians and other intrested organisations. ● Fran Hosken, WHO, antagonism from Western feminism and Western policies. ● They are lacking social agency. Western Academics, Activists & Politicians ● Fran Hosken ● Sandra Daniel proposes educating women about the health consequences of FGM as a means of eradicating it, “The right to health is reasonable grounds to oppose the cultural act of FGM. FGM poses no health benefits and causes only harm to the overall state and wellbeing of a female’s health. “The health consequences of female genital mutilation are both immediate and long-term.” “As far as health is concerned, there seems to be absolutely no justification of benefit to the practice. FGM has complications and risks that extend beyond that of the mental state or sexual urge of a woman, the risks are not only detrimental to the overall wellbeing and health of an individual, they can also be life threatening.” ● Ensler’s ‘The Vagina Monologues’ - pain and suering of her sisters in humanity. ● Beth Ann Gillia (1997) ‘Female Genital Mutilation: A Form of Persecution’ New Mexico Law Review 27(3) pp. 579-6141 - ‘proposes that the eradication of FGM requires responses on at least three levels: the individual, the domestic, and the international.’ ‘we should not abdicate our responsibility toward each other as human beings out of fear of being named cultural imperialists. Instead, that "fear," or concern, should inform our choices and actions. The granting of asylum is an appropriate way to address dicult cultural practices because it does not involve exporting our ideas of fairness, human rights, or gender equality.’ ● Mariya Karimjee (2015) ‘Damage’ The Big Roundtable January 14th - real life experience of FGM, Karachi. ● Nimco Ali, CEO of the Five Foundation, has been appointed by the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, as an independent Government Advisor on tackling violence against women and girls in the United Kingom. ● Waris Dirie - Somali model, author, and human rights activist against FGM. She was also a UN Special Ambassador against FGM. ● Sandra, Article on Cultural Relativism - FGM done to curb women’s sexual desires considered violation of personal autonomy and sexual rights. The health-related concerns that are consequently involved with FGM make it a violation of health. Organisations ● Asante African Foundation, Egypt Desert Flower Foundation (more than 50% of Egyptian women are aected by FGM), Action Aid: direct support to women/girls who have escaped FGM, help communities to learn, train women to form Women’s Watch Groups to report cases of FGM etc. ● World Health Organization & American Medical Association - enshrined Fran Hosken’s definition of FGM which is that ‘the mutilation of the genital organs of the female body for any reasons whatsoever is a fundamental oense against the human rights of all women in generally and specifically against all children and women being mutilated… The right to health is a basic human right that cannot be abridged’. 1

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmlr/vol27/iss3/6/

The Universal Declaration of Human rights (1948), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1981), the UN Declaration of Elimination of Violence against Women (1993), and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World conference on Human Rights (1994)” Analyse alternative positions from those in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East whose communities practice female genital mutilation and explain how they dier. ● Find news items from the Middle East, Asia & Africa. ● Social, cultural & religious factors - UNICEF conducted a study regarding the social conditions surrounding rituals and practices and stated, “where FGM is a social convention, the social pressure to conform to value system of that society is a strong motivation to perpetuate the practice.” ● Female sexuality is considered a threat to marital stability and male control. ● Used as a mechanism to control female sexuality, and guard against extra-marital relationships. ● Used to control women’s sexual autonomy. ● Stringent way to reduce and abolish women’s capacity for sexual capacity, method to control women’s rampant sexuality. Sexim and misyognism. ● “Young women and girls are happy to be a part of a cultural ritual as it will bring them respect and acceptance from their loved ones, peers, and elders. FGM is seen as a “necessary part of raising a girl properly, and a way to prepare her for adulthood and marriage.” ● “Cultural relativists state that those working to eradicate FGM have to acknowledge the risk of alienation faced by women and girls who choose to reject the tradition on account of imperialist imposition. The need to feel accepted is a basic human need and what place is it for anyone to displace a human from their own culture or society on the basis of adhering to morally acceptable norms.” ● Circumcision and excision - to make women more manageable and ‘behaved’. ● Women’s worth lies in reproductive capacity. ● Guards against promiscuity. ● ‘Sealed womb’. ● Africa, Middle Eastern and Asia FGM practices in direct binary opposition to Hoskin’s approach, which she sees that it is reinforcing a patriarchal culture. ● Disavow, cultural imperialism, partonise. ● Reproducing imperial narrative. ● Hypocritical dichotomy, Kennedy suggests, between Western women who undergo cosmetic surgery procedures with FGM in Africa. If western women are free to undergo cosmetic procedures, then so too are African women. Western women who undergo western genital procedures such as realignment or pressure to correct flaws for aesthetic reasons. ● ‘Cultural appropriation?’ ● Postcolonial feminists such as Amadiume, Trinh, Mohanty and Spivak advocate reductionist representations of Western vs Non-western. ● Marginalisation tendencies by anti-FGM advocacy groups. Failure to acknowledge that there are dierent hierarchical, social, economic, cultural and ethnic ideas of beauty and beauty standards. ● Ethnocentric - imposing Western ideas on a Non-Western practice. ● Smith, Courtney. “Who Defines ‘Mutilation’? Challenging Imperialism in the Discourse of Female Genital Cutting.” Feminist Formations, vol. 23, no. 1, 2011, pp. 25–46. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41301637. Accessed 28 Oct. 2020. - “It seeks to challenge the hegemony of traditional Western feminist discourse in framing the debate surrounding female genital cutting (FGC). The argument is that FGC is not a "barbaric, uncivilized, and mutilating practice" that happens in uniform, primordial societies. The article critiques this ethnocentric rhetoric and also ●

provides an alternative approach to studying, discussing, and understanding FGC.” ● Wairimu, ‘One Vagina to Go’ - Elleke Boehmer coins the notion of FGM as a ‘travelling metaphor’. Africa, Asia & Middle East ● Sandra - Article on Cultural Relativism - argues that universal feminist theorists are unreasonable in their conclusion to abolish FGM, without oering pragmatic solution of a ritual performed for 2,000 years. She is African and finds it oensive. ● African feminists suggest that Western feminists reduce the FGM narrative into one which is based on western connotations of autonomy and equality. Does not take into account that it reinforces a ‘matriarchal culture’, according to Ahamadu. ● Ahamadu, suggests that anti FGM reinforces negative sterotypes and impacts on women being circumcised in terms of their psycho-sexual understanding of themselves. ● ‘Anti FGM discourse is seen as demonizing communities that practice FGM and afirms a false heirahcal binary between the West and the Rest’. The eect of this binary is that it works to erase the autonomy of African women. ● More safer ways to do this procedure. Middle East ● Egypt and Ahmadu: considered to be the act that removes male power from women’s genitalia and helped transition to being into her own right, rather than have some male and some female genitalia. Separation from masculinity, and disobedient of the external phallic. Female ejaculation is seen as a phallic concept, and thus removing that, it asserts women’s power and reinforces matriarchal culture. Apply the points arising from the debate to reach a position on how legal scholars in the UK should approach female genital mutilation in Africa, for example, and here in Europe. ● Ensler’s ‘The Vaginal Monolgues’. Wairimu criticism of Ensler’s plea to represent her non-western women counterparts that undergo the pain of FGM. ● Whether legitmative for a Western feminist to critcise FGM. ● Nimco Ali, CEO of the Five Foundation, has been appointed by the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, as an independent Government Advisor on tackling violence against women and girls in the United Kingom. ● ‘Concerns over rise in FGM as lockdown ‘hides’ incidents’ https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/18825880.concern-rise-fgm-lockdown-hid es-incidents/ From this perspective, legal scholars in the Uk should approach FGM in Europe with a more steadfast and ecient approach to identify those who are aected. ● Sandra - Article on Cultural Relativism - argues that universal feminist theorists are unreasonable in their conclusion to abolish FGM, without oering pragmatic solution of a ritual performed for 2,000 years. She is African and finds it oensive. Consider how the debates around female genital mutilation might have parallels in other issues around gender, race and religion. ● Reinforces gender stereotypes. Men are dominant, and women are viewed as incubators and ‘walking wombs’. ● It’s particular to specific ethnic and cultural practices and races. ● In a way, it is used as a religious shield to guard female chastity. Using religion to advance racial agenda’s and cultural practices. ● Find examples where there is division between Western dominant and universal and value calls that contrast between women in dierent cultures. West say its outdated and barbaric, but in other cultures females find emancipation and power.

Further Reading Fran Hosken (1993) The Hosken Report: Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females (Massachusetts: Women’s International Network News) (available at http://www.middle-east-info.org/league/somalia/hosken.pdf). Jane Wong (1999) ‘The Anti-Essentialism v. Essentialism Debate in Feminist Legal Theory: The Debate and Beyond’ William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law 5(2) pp. 274-296. Alison Slack (1988) ‘Female Circumcision: A Critical Appraisal’ Human Rights Quarterly 10(4) pp. 437-486. Hernlund, Y. and Shell-Duncan, B. (eds) (2007) Transcultural Bodies: Female Genital Cutting in Global Context. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. L. Amede Obiora (1997) ‘Bridges and Barricades: Rethinking Polemics and Intransigence in the Campaign against Female Circumcision’ Case Western Reserve Law Review 47(2) pp. 275-378. Fran Hosken (1981) ‘Toward a Definition of Women's Human Rights’ Human Rights Quarterly 3(2) pp. 1-10. Pheobe Haddon (1999) ‘All the Dierence in the World: Listening and Hearing the Voices of Women’ Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review 8(2) pp. 377-390. Patricia Cain (1989) ‘Feminist Jurisprudence: Grounding the Theories’ Berkeley Women's Law Journal, 4(2), pp. 191-214. Stanlie James (1998) ‘Shades of Othering: Reflections on Female Circumcision/Genital Mutilation’ Signs 23(4) pp. 1031-1048. Marge Berer (2015) ‘The history and role of the criminal law in anti-FGM campaigns: Is the criminal law what is needed, at least in countries like Great Britain?’ Reproductive Health Matters 23(46) pp. 145-157. Beth Ann Gillia (1997) ‘Female Genital Mutilation: A Form of Persecution’ New Mexico Law Review 27(3) pp. 579-614 Isabelle Gunning (1992) ‘Arrogant Perception, World-Travelling and Multicultural Feminism: The Case of Female Genital Surgeries’ Columbia Human Rights Law Review 23(2) pp. 189-248. Alexandra Topping and Mary Carson (2014) ‘FGM is banned but very much alive in the UK’ The Guardian February 6th (available at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/06/female-genital-mutilation-foreign-cr ime-common-uk). Mary Daly (1978) Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (Boston: Beacon Press) (available at http://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/mary-daly-gyn-ecolog y-the-metaethics-of-radical-feminism.pdf). Diana Meyers (2000) ‘Feminism and Women's Autonomy: the Challenge of Female Genital Cutting’ Metaphilosphy 31(5) pp. 469–491.

Patricia Cain (1994) ‘Lesbian Perspective, Lesbian Experience, and the Risk of Essentialism’ Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law 2(1) pp. 43-74. Drucilla Cornell (1989) ‘Doubly-Prized World: Myth Allegory and the Feminine’ Cornell Law Review 75(3)pp. 643-698. Patricia Hill Collins (1989) ‘The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought’ Signs 14(4) pp. 745-773. Patricia Hill Collins (1998) ‘It's All In the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation’ Hypatia 13(3) pp. 62–82. Patricia Wheeler (2004) ‘Eliminating FGM: The role of the law’ The International Journal of Children's Rights 11(3) pp. 257-271. Josephine Beoku-Betts and Wairimũ Ngarũiya Njambi (2005) ‘African Feminist Scholars in Women’s Studies: Negotiating Spaces of Dislocation and Transformation in the Study of Women’ Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism 6(1) pp. 113-13. Lori Leonard (2000) ‘Interpreting female genital cutting: Moving beyond the impasse’ Annual Review of Sex Research 11(1) pp. 158-191. Hope Lewis (1995) ‘Between Irua and “female genital mutilation”: Feminist human rights discourse and the cultural divide’ Harvard Human Rights Journal 8(1) pp. 1-56. Mariya Karimjee (2015) ‘Damage’ The Big Roundtable January 14th (available at http://www.thebigroundtable.com/stories/damage/?src=longreads). Raj Kumar Mishra (2013) ‘Postcolonial feminism: Looking into within-beyond-to dierence’ International Journal of English and Literature Review 4(4) pp. 129-134....